William f



Dec. 14, 1926. 1,610,445

W. F. HORSTING HIDE STRETCHING APPARAIUS Filed Nov. 2, 1921 3Sheets-Sheac 1 Dec 14, 1926.

W. F. 'HORSTING HIDE STR ETCHING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 2, 1921 3 SheetseSheet 2 ME F m: q i m m i i 44 46 flail/$4 i p m All Dem 14,1926. 1,610,445

W. F. HORSTING HIDE STRETCHING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 2, 1921 3 sheets sheec I3 Patented Dec. 14, 1926.

miners VTILLIAM F. HORSTING, 0F CHICAGG, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOB TO STANDARD LEATHER MACHINERY COMPANY, OF GI-IEOAGO, ILLINOIS, A COBi OBATI'ON OF DELAWARE.

HIDE-STRETCHING APPARATUS.

Application filed November 2, 1921.

his invention relates to hide-stretching apparatus designed to eliminate the necessity for manually supporting any partof the weight of unavoidably heavy and cumbersome hide-stretching frames, and particularly when conducting them in their operative position for a stretching engine or jack from an overhead suspending track therefor and vice versa.

My invention, however, particularly relates to improvements in hide-stretching apparatus heretofore essentially consisting of a floor track carriage, a stretching engine,

' a stretching frame support mounted thereon, comprising a pair of counterbalanced arms pivotally supported at one end by the carriage and connected at their opposite ends by a track rail adapted to be moved to and out of register with one of a series of overhead parallel tracks through the oper ation of the carriage, the capacity of each of which tracks is limited to a single stretching frame depending therefrom by means of rollers secured to the frame.

My invention further relates to improvements in the frames of hide-stretching apparatus heretofore provided with either a rack or pawl or a pin and perforations intended for locking the movable jaw of a stretcher frame in. its adjusted position.

' The object of my invention is to dispense with thenecessit-y for using a floor track carriage, a counterbalanced support for the stretcher frames, multiplicity of tracks from which to suspend and successively conduct the frames to'their operative position for a stretching apparatus and to thereby reduce to a minimum the cost of construction of hide-stretching machines and also the expense of length and height of ceiling of a room for their installation.

A further object of my invention is to provide means whereby the movable jaw may, withoutlost motion, be locked in its adjusted position for stretching a hide.

With these ends in View, my invention finds embodiment in cer ain features of novelty in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts by which the said objects are attained, all as hereinafter fully described with reference to the accompany- Serial No. 512,201.

ing drawings and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In said drawings,

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a hidestretching apparatus in which my invention finds its embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the locking device for the turntable.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail side elevation of the moveable jaw of a stretcher frame and the locking device therefor; and

F 5 is an end elevation thereof looking at the right-hand end of Fig. 4.

6 indicates a floor or other suitable base support in which are set, at suitable intervals, a number of posts 7, to the upper and inwardly projecting ends of which is secured, by any suitable means, a single track 9, from which track are suspended a number of stretcher frames 10, consisting of side bars 11, 11, connected at one end by a bar 12 to which is secured a bracket 13, carrying curved rollers 1 1 adapted to run on the track 9 and suspend the stretcher frame therefrom.

By supporting the track on floor posts, its elevation need not be greater than is necessary for the side bars for the stretcher I frames to but little more than clear the floor. The side bars 11, 11 of the stretcher frames consist, as usual, of tubing and are connected by a sliding jaw comprising a bar 15, provided with eyes or hubs 16, sleeved on the side bars 11, and prevented from accidentally slipping off the side bars by means of pins 17, 17.

The sleeve hubs 16 of the sliding jaw (see Figs. 4 and 5) are provided with parallel lugs 18, 18, between which is confined a grooved roller 19, eccentrically secured by a pin 20 to a crank arm 21 passing through the lugs and providing a means for locking the movable jaw in its adjusted position in the absence of any lost motion, which inevitably follows the heretofore use of apawl and ratchet or pin and perforations.

In other words, by providing the movable jaw with the eccentric locking device shown and described, it is possible and practilOO cable, for the first time, to lock the jaw when the hide is at its greatest tension in the course of stretching it.

Track 9, it is now to be observed, is substantially circular or to the extent that its length is about as great as its width, and which, it is to be noted, is continuous but for a break between its extreme ends, and this directly over a turntable 22, provided with an axial bolt 23 (see Fig. 2) supporting it in a plane next that of the upper surface of the floor 6.

The turntable 22 has secured adjacent its edges and diametrically opposite each other, posts 24:, 24, the upper ends 25 of which curve inwardlyv and are connected by a single track-bar 26 fixed thereto, adapted to provide a support for and on which to swing the stretcher frames from their vertically suspended to their horizontally supported stretching position and vice versa.

To these ends the side bars 11, 11 of the stretcher frames have, rigidly secured thereto, hook-shaped lugs 27 adapted to slide upon the track 26, adjacent the ends of which are circular enlargments 28, 28, with the ends 29, 29 and intermediate sides and edges flat, the hook 27 being curved, as shown at 31, at the righthand of Fig. 2, for adapting it to embrace the fiat portion of the track and also to provide a bearing upon which the stretcher frames may be revolved upon the track 26.

Turntable 22 is provided at intervals of its periphery with three notches 32, 33 and 34, adapted to be engaged by a detent or bolt 35, secured to the floor by a bracket 36 and actuated by a foot-lever 37.

A coiled spring 38, fixed to the lever and to the bracket 36, operates to normally project the bolt against the edge of the turntable and into whatever notch may be in register with the bolt.

For stiffening the posts 24, 24: to better resist and more rigidly secure them to the turn table 22, they may be connected at their bot tom by a bar 39, which bar also tends to prevent the posts from being bent from the force of the stretching operation presently to be described.

In operation, a stretcher frame provided with a hide or, as may be, butts of a hide, located in their operative position therein, is moved along the track 9 until it reaches the open end of the track, as, for example,

the stretcher frame shown at the bottom of Fig. 1 is moved to the left and the turntable is rotated in the reverse direction until the bolt 35 engages the notch 82, whereupon the turntable track is so nearly in line with the end of the track 9 that, before the frame leaves the track 9, the hooks 27 on the stretcher frame will ride over and upon the track 30 until both hooks are engaged with the rounded portions 28 of the track before the rollers of the stretcher frame leave their suspending track 9, when the hooks immediately settle upon and support the stretcher frame, which is thereupon revolved by means of the turntable until the bolt 35 engages 1 the notch 33, whereupon the stretcher frame is swung to a horizontal position, and in doing so, passess between spaced spring arms L0 secured to a bracket 41 mounted upon a post 1-2. The spring arms 40 operate to guide l the stretcher frame to its supported position upon the post, its mam purpose, however, being to yieldingly engage the edge of the bar 12 for preventlng the accidental movement or tilting of the stretcher frame from its operative position.

F orstretching the hide, an engine or M l- 1 1v n v f 1 1 r 1 .mocnng aci (not siown) 0 tie usua construction, may be so located and. fixed with reference to the movable jaw of the stretcher frame that it is adapted to actuate said jaw to stretch the hide or butts of a hide in the frame, following which and the instant the stretching force thereof is at its greatest, the eccentric 20 is then swung from its before loose to its operative tightened position and whereby the greatest stretching force designed to be imparted to the hide is applied to and retained by the hide with absolute accuracy and in the absence of any overstrctching heretofore necessary.

Among the advantages attributable to a hide-stretching apparatus provided with a looped single track, from which to suspend stretcher frames and a movable track directly receiving a stretcher frame from the fixed track and adapted to shift such a frame, from its suspended position to and support it in its operative horizontal position, as compared with individual tracks for stretcher frames, and a pair of counterbalanced arms before referred to, is that the number of stretcher frames simultaneously suspended from a looped track of any form is limited.

only to the length of track for the loop, re

gardless of the form of the loop; that a min tiplicity of tracks and track carriages for respectively supporting a stretching engine or jack and a stretcher frame in its opera- 'tive position, is eliminated and that a room of unsual length and height of ceiling, herelmf:

operated in a room 10x36 feet, having a ceiling of but 8 feet, with the suspension of the track from the ceiling, which height of ceiling may be substantially less when the looped track is supported from posts, as shown in the drawings and hereinbefore described.

In this connection, it is to be observed that it will not be a substantial departure from my invention to suspend the looped track, when desired, from the ceiling of any room in which the apparatus of my invention is installed.

Having described my invention, what l claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination in a hide-stretching apparatus, of a single fixed track comprising a circuit, the free ends of which are spaced from each other, a movable track located in a plane below said fixed track, a number of stretcher frames, and means adapting said frames to be suspended from the fixed track and to be pivotally supported by the movable track.

2. The combination in a liide-stretching apparatus, of a single fixed traclr forming an incomplete circuit the free ends of which are spaced from each other, a turntable, and an elevated track mounted thereon and adapted by the movement of the turntable to be alined with the end of the fixed track.

The combination in a hide-stretching apparatus, of an elevated track the free ends of which are spaced from and symmetrically disposed in regard to each other, a movable track located in a plane below said fixed track, and a turntable support for the movable track the axis of which turntable is per pendieular to a line passing through approximately the length of the movable track.

4. The combination in a hide-stretching apparatus, of an elevated single loop track the free ends of which are spaced apart from each other, and a number of movable stretcher frames suspended from said fixed track, said stretcher frames being provided with lugs and provide a rotatable fulcrum upon which to swing said frames from a vertically suspended to a horizontally supported position.

5. In a hide-stretching apparatus, the combination of an elevated fixed track, having the form of a loop, the adjacent ends of o which track are spaced, and a number of stretcher frames suspended endwise from and movable on said track, of a movable track adapted to receive and provide a fulcrum upon which to support and swing a stretcher frame from a vertical to a horizontal position and vice versa, and a fixed post adapted to limit the swinging movement of the stretcher frame and support one end thereof when in its operative stretching posi tion.

6.111 a hide-stretching apparatus, the combination with a fixed elevated track adapted to receive and suspend a plurality of stretching frames, an elevated support therefor ada )ted to successivel receive the stretcher frames from said fixed tracl: and provide a fulcrum therefor on which to swing said frames from a vertical to its operative stretching position, of a post adapted in connection with the movable track to stretcher frames with and suspending them by one end from said track, a substantially straight and movable track located in a plane below said elevated track, and means for moving said movable track about a vertical axis, a fixed post cooperating with said mov able track for supporting the stretcher frame in an operative position for stretching a hide secured thereto, and means adapted to pre vent the lateral movement and accidental displacement of the stretcher frame in its operative stretching position.

8. A hide-stretching apparatus, comprising in combination an elevated looped track, a stretcher frame adapted to be suspended at one end and travel on said track, another track located in a plane below said elevated track, a post therefor, a turntable for supporting said post, provided with notches, and a bolt adapted to register with said notches and lock the turntable in its several adjusted positions.

9. A hide stretching machine comprising in combination a fixed track, a movable track, hide-stretching mechanism associated there with, and a turntable support for said movable track.

10. A hide stretching machine comprising in combination a looped track, a rotatable track, hide stretching mechanism associated therewith, hangers adapted to be suspended from' said looped track, and means permitting transfer from the looped traclr to the rotatable track.

11. In a machine of the class described a fixed return track, a rotatable track, the ends of said return track being symmetrically disposed about said rotatable track, hide stretching mechanism associated therewith, and hangers adapted to be transferred from either end of said return track to said rotatable track.

12. In a machine of the class described fixed return track, a rotatable track at a lower level, the ends of said return track being symmetrically disposed about said rotatable lUH track, and hangers adapted to be transferred a plurality of hangers adapted to be transfrom either end of said return track to said ferred from and t0 the fixed track and the rotatable track. rotatable track. 0 1?). A 1 Elle stretch in g machine comprising In 'ltIlQSF-i whereof, I have hereunto set my :1 fixes"; open chi-suit track, a rotatable track hand this fH-th day of Septmnher, 192].

at a thfiezfent level disposed adjacent the I 7 opening); in the circuit of the fixed cruel; and VILL'IAh I F. HORSTINfi. 

